Burmese Days Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

One hot morning in April, U Po Kyin, a fat man aged 56, sits on his veranda and thinks about his life. As a child, he saw British troops march into Burma and decided to “become a parasite upon them.” At 20, though poor, he earned enough money through blackmail to buy a job as a government clerk. He got his first promotion by denouncing other clerks for theft (though he was stealing, too). By now he is a Subdivisional Magistrate. Though he makes money from bribes and racketeering, his superiors refuse to believe it, and his supporters protect him. He plans to avoid a bad reincarnation by funding the building of Buddhist pagodas when he’s old.

The British Empire justified its colonization of various peoples by claiming to “uplift” and “civilize” them. Yet U Po Kyin’s life story suggests that British imperial rule in Burma has led to corruption: due to the British annexation of Burma, young U Po Kyin’s highest ambition was to become a “parasite” on the British ruling class, and his career has been marked by unethical behaviors such as bribery.

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U Po Kyin summons a servant and asks whether anyone wants to see him. The servant rattles off a list of people with “presents” for U Po Kyin, a village girl who claims she has had U Po Kyin’s baby, and a clerk named Ko Ba Sein. U Po Kyin tells the servant to order one man to increase the value of his present and to bring in Ko Ba Sein. When Ko Ba Sein approaches, U Po Kyin asks how their plot is going. Ko Ba Sein shows him a nationalist paper, the Burmese Patriot, in which an anonymous article accuses Deputy Commissioner Mr. Macgregor of having fathered children on poor Burmese girls.

U Po Kyin, a high-ranking official, receives “presents”—that is, bribes—from the petitioners who come to visit him. By representing political bribery as an everyday occurrence in British colonial Burma, the novel suggests that British colonial rule has led to cynicism and corruption. What’s more, U Po Kyin’s mysterious “plot” involving Mr. Macgregor suggests more corruption to come. In addition, the detail of the young girl who claims that U Po Kyin impregnated functions to establish sexual predation and the subjugation of women as important themes in the novel going forward.

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Literary Devices

After U Po Kyin praises the apprentice clerk who ghostwrote the article, Ko Ba Sein asks whether the article will be “enough.” U Po Kyin says it’s a start—they’re planning to ruin the reputation of Dr. Veraswami, an Indian surgeon who superintends the jail, and so they must convince the British that Dr. Veraswami holds anti-imperial opinions. When Ko Ba Sein points out that Dr. Veraswami is loyal to the British, U Po Kyin says that won’t matter: “When a man has a black face, suspicion is proof.” Their next move is to convince the British that Dr. Veraswami wrote the article about Mr. Macgregor.

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It is not yet clear why U Po Kyin wants to slander and ruin Dr. Veraswami. Yet U Po Kyin’s claim that “when a man has a black face, suspicion is proof” for the British hints that he plans to use the British colonizers’ racism against them for his own ends.

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Literary Devices

Ko Ba Sein mentions that Dr. Veraswami has a friend among the British, a timber merchant named Mr. Flory. U Po Kyin isn’t worried: the British aren’t loyal to their non-white friends, and Flory is a “coward.” The main goal is to make Mr. Macgregor suspect the doctor, and then U Po Kyin will effect “the other affair.” U Po Kyin dismisses Ko Ba Sein. He sees the girl who claims he impregnated her, denies he ever met her, and calls for his breakfast.

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When U Po Kyin claims that white British people are never loyal to their non-white friends and that Flory is a “coward,” the novel implicitly poses a question: is U Po Kyin right, or will Flory prove U Po Kyin wrong by remaining loyal to Dr. Veraswami? Meanwhile, U Po Kyin’s casual dismissal of the girl he likely impregnated hints that the novel takes place in a misogynistic and sexually exploitative environment.

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U Po Kyin’s wife Ma Kin serves him breakfast. Afterward, she criticizes him for doing evil, asking why he plans to hurt the good doctor Veraswami, U Po Kyin says that he’ll compensate for his evil by building pagodas. Ma Kin begs him to “acquire more merit” by doing some good deeds—for example, by feeding some hungry priests. U Po Kyin, who thinks of good deeds as a kind of “bank deposit,” does decide to send some mangoes to the monastery.

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U Po Kyin’s half-hearted attempt to counterbalance his plots with religious donations reveals that he knows his behavior is evil—but acts as he does anyway. His cynicism indicates the corrupting effect that British rule has had on high-ranking Burmese officials in colonized Burma.

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Burmese Days: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis